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I'm Atty. Wend and I'm Atty. March.
Welcome to our podcast. In this episode, we will be discussing retention or reacquisition of Filipino citizenship, commonly known as the Dual Citizenship Act. Yes.
Atty. Wendy, what does the report Public Act 9225 cover okay our a 9225 or the citizenship retention or Reacquisition Act of 2003 or otherwise commonly known as the dual citizenship law this pertains to those reacquisition or retention of Filipino citizens by a former natural-born Filipinos who have lost their Filipino citizenship Okay, let's break it down. Who are the natural born Filipinos? Okay, natural born Filipino citizens under our current constitution, our Philippine constitution, these are the persons who were born from a Filipino parents or those persons who were born before January 17 of 1973 of a Filipino mother and who was elected to become a Filipino citizen.
upon the reaching the age of majority which is 21 years old at that time so if you are a child of a mixed marriage one is a Filipino mother and another one is of foreigner father are you still considered as natural-born you're still considered as a natural born Filipino citizen so okay when does this retention or reacquisition apply the law encompasses two situations one is the retention of a Filipino citizen and the second one is the reacquisition of the Philippine citizen what's the difference okay that there's a difference here the redemption of the Filipino citizen this pertains to those natural-born Filipino citizen who have acquired a foreign citizenship and then applied for a Filipino citizenship during the effectiveness of this dual citizenship law when was that this was september 17 of 2003 okay so it means to say that when you lost your filipino citizenship and then applied for a foreign citizenship definitely you already lost it but with this advent of the dual citizenship law it says that you have not lost lost your Filipino citizenship at the time that you have reacquired your Filipino citizenship under this dual citizenship law. Versus the reacquisition. For reacquisition, this pertains to those former national born Filipino citizens who have lost their Filipino citizenship prior to the effectivity of the dual citizenship law.
And then they have applied or reacquired their Filipino citizenship. acquired their Philippine citizenship during this effectivity of the dual citizenship law. Okay, for example, I am a natural born Filipino citizen because I have both parents who are Filipinos.
I went to the US in 2000. I was naturalized as a US citizen after five years, so that would be 2005. which is the effectivity already of the dual citizenship law. I was naturalized, I lost my Philippine citizenship, and then now I want to secure the Filipino citizenship again. So I would be applying under the dual citizenship act.
But the question is where will I fall? Will I fall under the retention or will I fall under the acquisition? Okay since you have lost your Filipino citizenship, during the effectivity of the dual citizenship law and then reapplied or reacquired for your Filipino citizenship the one that will be applicable to you is the retention means to say that when you applied for the acquisition of your Filipino citizenship you have deemed not to have lost your Filipino citizenship.
So there's a continuity of your Filipino citizenship. So even if I took my oath as a Filipino citizenship, maybe... two years after my naturalization, which is 2005. Between 2005 and 2007, once I get my reacquisition confirmation from the Bureau of. immigration I would have been deemed not to have lost my citizenship between 2005 2006 and 2007 yes that's correct versus a situation where in I went to the US in 1995 I acquired my naturalization papers from the US in year 2000 I lost my citizenship also in the same year 2000 but I decided to get or apply for dual citizenship in 2007 what is my gap is there a gap okay in that situation there is a gap so from 2000 where in you have applied or renounced your Filipino citizenship because you have become American citizen or a different citizen so from 2000 you have already a gap of seven years so from the time that you have renounced your Filipino citizenship until the time that you have reapplied you have lost your Filipino citizenship already at seven years for seven years so it will not go back up to 2003 when the law was made effective no so why do you think this is important I think this is important because especially for those Filipino citizen who are running for public office there have been issues regarding those natural born Filipino citizen who have lost their Filipino citizenship and then eventually run for public office there has been questioned regarding whether they are qualified to run under the Voters Act or under our constitution regarding for public elections so in cases of a national elections or those persons who are running for national elections there are usually qualifications that the people or persons who are running for public office must be of natural born Filipino citizenship so for those Filipino citizen who have lost their Filipino citizenship and then acquired a foreign citizenship they have renounced already the Filipino citizenship under the old law or prior to the effectivity of the dual citizenship law so in that case they might be have a question regarding their qualifications to run for public office if eventually they have applied for reacquisition of their Filipino citizenship.
So assuming you have secured your dual citizenship after 2003, right? This is the effectivity of the dual citizenship law, particularly September 2003. Can you run in any public office as a dual citizen? If you have lost your Filipino citizenship during the effectivity of... the world citizenship law and then reapplied for your Filipino citizenship then yes you can run for public office because under the law it says you deemed not to have lost yes your citizenship so why do you want to become a Filipino citizen again again okay well there are benefits of becoming a Filipino citizen definitely one is the right to travel using your fee passport second is the right to own real estate properties or lands without any limitations at all because if you are a former natural-born citizen of the Philippines well you're still entitled to own lands but there has restrictions already so being a Filipino citizen or if you have acquired or retain your Filipino citizenship you don't have these restrictions at all another thing is that you can practice your professions or license which has been issued by the PRC or the Philippine Regulatory Commission's another thing is that you can invest in the Philippines or establish your corporations without the limitations of the Foreign Investments Act. So who are eligible in applying for the dual citizenship?
The person who are eligible to apply for Filipino citizenship is definitely those not natural or former natural born Filipino citizen. What are the requirements when you want to apply? Well common requirements is one we have to prove that you are a former natural born Filipino. Of course you have to prove this by showing your birth certificate which has been authenticated by the PSA or formerly the NSO.
Another thing if you're married is to show your marriage certificate if you're an adult or you're Marriage has been dissolved, you have to show also a copy of that which has been annotated in your marriage contract. And then you need to submit your old Filipino or old Philippine passport if you have any because this one they will cancel it, the immigration, and you just have to apply for a new one. And then if you have a foreign passport, you also have to show that indefinitely the certificate of naturalization which has been issued by the foreign entity. Can this be applied also in favor of minors?
Yes, this is called the derivative application wherein at the time that the parents or the adult will apply for the retention or the reacquisition of the Filipino citizenship, they can... include their unmarried minor children or child in their applications and then they will also be benefited from the reacquisition or the retention of your Filipino citizen. Generally, how long do these applications take? Well, it really depends because if outside, like the Philippine embassies or Philippine consulate, they usually just take weeks compared to here in the Philippines, it will take longer.
like months yeah i i'm assuming that our bureau of immigration is swamped with a lot of applications so it will take for them a long time to process i remember we have a client before she was already a senior citizen and the son had to bring the mom who was previously natural Born Filipino but naturalized already in the US, had to bring the mom in the Philippines so that she can be taken care of by a senior residence's facility. mainly because you know mom would want to stay in the philippines and the family or the relatives are also here and can easily see them and um it's way cheaper to take care of a senior citizen here in the philippines versus abroad but um While she wanted to have or to apply for the dual citizenship, she had encountered roadblocks. She didn't have a copy of her birth certificate. The PSA did not have a record.
So what we did with that client is we had to secure circumstantial evidence that she is a Filipino. For example, her marriage certificate. Before she went to the US, it showed that she is married to another Filipino. And in the marriage certificate, her citizenship showed as Filipino.
Also, we had affidavit of disinterested persons who fortunately were still alive and made the affidavit and said this person has been a neighbor for a very long time and she is a Filipino. Another secondary evidence that we were able to... to provide was her school records.
She went to a public school. The school was able to provide a school record and it would show that she is also a Filipino. It was important for the senior citizen to have her Filipino citizenship because it's very expensive if she remains to be a foreign citizen. Otherwise, she would be paying for visa fees.
Okay, assuming you have successfully received your dual citizenship. citizenship, right? Do you have any other obligation as a Filipino citizen?
Well, aside from paying taxes, that's one of your obligations of becoming a Filipino. But remember, being a Filipino, you are only taxed for income taxes for earnings that are earned in the Philippines. You'll not be taxed anywhere just like the other, you know, countries who tax their citizens.
anywhere that's true but um if you die which happens there's only two things right that is sure in life taxes and death unfortunately our tax code requires you to pay taxes on all your estates as a filipino regardless where it is located so that would mean your estate would include your properties in the philippines if you have your property outside of the Philippines and you aggregate those and what is the value and then you pay taxes and I say tax of 6% just to be clear this act will not apply to children who are married to mixed marriages because the child is already the world citizen already at birth and the natural one Filipino yeah okay thank you for listening